Methods for prerendering and methods for managing and configuring prerendering operations

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method and system for prerendering web content are described. A computing device determines a navigation event within a web browser based at least in part on a prerender tag embedded within a web page. The prerender tag includes a ranking value used to rank links to prerender and a time parameter. The computing device requests content associated with the navigation event and prerenders the content associated with the navigation event in an alternate instance of the web browser that is hidden from a user of the web browser. The computing device determines whether the user has selected the navigation event within a time period based on the time parameter associated with the prerender tag. The alternate instance of the web browser containing the prerendered content in a current user instance of the web browser may be displayed. The computing device may discard the prerendered content.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/305,075, filed Jun. 16, 2014, which issued as U.S. Pat. No.9,928,223 on Mar. 27, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/175,115, filed Jul. 1, 2011, which issued asU.S. Pat. No. 8,788,711 on Jul. 22, 2014, which claims the benefit ofthe filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/497,056,filed Jun. 14, 2011, the disclosure of which are incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND

The advent of the World Wide Web has placed more information at thefingertips of today's users than ever before. Various websites cater tonearly every need and interest, providing access to referenceinformation, business and financial documents, social networking, andmore. Widespread broadband Internet access provides faster access tothese sites than ever before.

However, as fast as current high-speed Internet services are, the act ofbrowsing the web is not instantaneous. When a user selects a link on apage or enters a uniform resource locator (URL) in a text field, thereis a delay while data is requested from the host, sent to the client,and rendered in the browser. The user is typically idle while waitingfor their requested site to load. While high-speed Internet access maylimit this delay to a few seconds, even this short delay can add up tothousands of man-hours of lost productivity each year.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A method and system for improving access to network content aredescribed. Aspects of this disclosure minimize the delay in accessingweb content by identifying (e.g. predicting) a user navigation event ona web page. Aspects of the disclosure then request content associatedwith the next navigation event and prerender the content in a hiddenapplication instance. When the user actually selects the navigationevent, the hidden application instance is displayed to the user,minimizing the delay the user experiences.

An aspect of the disclosure describes a computer-implemented method formanaging website analytics for prerendered content. The method includesreceiving notification that a network content request is a prerenderrequest for a set of network content, redacting, using a processor, asubset of content from the network content to create a set of partialcontent such that the set of partial content comprises the networkcontent with the redacted content removed, providing the set of partialcontent in response to the network content request, receivingnotification that the redacted content was accessed by a user device,and sending the redacted content in response to the notification thatthe redacted content was accessed. In some aspects, the method furtherincludes updating an impression statistic in response to thenotification that the redacted content was accessed. The redactedcontent may include one or more advertisements. The method may furtherinclude inserting one or more hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) errorcodes within the set of partial content in place of the redactedcontent. The set of redacted content may include at least one image,script, cookie, or executable instruction. The redacting stage may beperformed by not providing the redacted content in response to a requestfrom a client device for the redacted content.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a computer-implemented methodfor managing website analytics for prerendered content. The methodincludes receiving notification that a network content request is aprerender request for a set of network content, providing the networkcontent in response to the network content request, receivingnotification that the network content was viewed after prerendering, andupdating an impression statistic in response to the notification thatthe network content was viewed such that the impression statisticreflects a count of users who have actually viewed the content. Thenetwork content may include at least one advertisement, and theimpression statistic may be associated with the at least oneadvertisement. The impression statistic may be associated with at leastone image, script, cookie, or executable instruction.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a processing system formanaging website analytics for prerendered content. The processingsystem includes at least one processor, a prerender module associatedwith the at least one processor, and a memory coupled to the at leastone processor. The prerender module is configured to receivenotification that a network content request is a prerender request for aset of network content, redact a subset of content from the networkcontent to create a set of partial content, such that the set of partialcontent comprises the network content with the redacted content removed,provide the set of partial content in response to the network contentrequest, receive a notification that the redacted content was accessed,and send the redacted content in response to the notification that theredacted content was accessed. The redacted content may include at leastone advertisement. The prerender module may be further configured toupdate an impression statistic in response to the notification. Theimpression statistic may be associated with the redacted content. Theprerender module may be further configured to provide a hypertexttransfer protocol error code in place of the redacted content.

Another aspect of the invention provides a processing system for servingnetwork content and managing prerender requests. The processing systemincludes at least one processor, a prerender module associated with theat least one processor, and a memory coupled to the at least oneprocessor. The prerender module is configured to determine whether anincoming network request is a prerender request. In some aspects, theprerender module is further configured to, in response to the incomingnetwork request being identified as a prerender request, not provideaccess to the network content. The prerender module may be furtherconfigured to provide a hypertext markup language metatag to indicatethat the processing system does not provide prerender content. Theprerender module may be further configured to measure a systemutilization, and, in response to the system utilization being below athreshold value, provide access to the network content requested by theincoming network request. The system utilization may include at leastone of a processor utilization, a network bandwidth, or an availablesystem memory. The prerender module may be further configured to receivea notification that a user wishes to access content previously requestedvia a prerender request, and to provide web content in response to thenotification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a system diagram depicting an example of a server incommunication with example client devices in accordance with aspects ofthe disclosure.

FIG. 2 is block diagram depicting an example of a computing device inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram depicting an example method for prerendering aweb page in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting an example method for indicating anavigation event to prerender in accordance with aspects of thedisclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting an example method for managing webimpression statistics during a prerender operation in accordance withaspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram depicting an example method for managing aprerender operation in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram depicting an example method for configuring aprerender operation in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of a system and method for improving access to networkcontent are described herein. Aspects of the disclosure minimize thedelay between a user's selection of a navigation event and display ofthe content associated with the navigation event by prerendering contentassociated with the navigation event prior to the user's selection ofthe event. For example, the method and system may predict a likely nextuniform resource locator during web browsing to preemptively requestcontent from the network before the user selects the corresponding link,thus minimizing the wait time when a user selects a hyperlink on a webpage. Various methods for performing the prerendering operation,configuring the prerendering operation, and managing the prerenderingoperation are described. For the purposes of this application, the term“prerendering” generally refers to the act of requesting all resources(e.g., any executable code, scripting language, files, and/orinteractive objects) necessary to load the content of a web address, andloading the content in a web browser instance.

As shown in FIG. 1, an example system 102 in accordance with one aspectincludes a server 104 in communication with one or more client devices106, 108, 110 displaying web browser interfaces 114, 116, 118. The userof the client device 106 may browse to a web page located at “www.a.com”as displayed on the web browser interface 114. That page includescontent selectable by the user.

The client devices may be any device capable of managing data requestsvia a network 112. Examples of such client devices include a personalcomputer (PC) 108, a mobile device 110, or a server 106. The clientdevices 106, 108, 110 are operable to perform prerendering operationsduring the execution of a web browser application. The server 104 maytransmit navigation history data to the client devices 106, 108, 110, toenable prediction of a next navigation event. In some aspects, theclient devices 106, 108, 110 determine a next navigation event using alocal navigation history and generate a web request to the server 104 toprerender the content associated with the next navigation event. Theprerender operation may also be determined dynamically by, for example,a JAVASCRIPT code. For example, a prerendering operation may occur whenthe user places a cursor over a link. For example, the user of theclient device 106 may browse to a web page located at “www.a.com” asdisplayed on the web browser interface 114. That page includes contentselectable by the user. Based on the user's navigation history, theclient device 106 may determine which of the selectable content the useris likely to select, and then prerender the content associated with theselectable content by requesting the content from the server 104.

As another example, the client device 108 may display www.a.com within abrowser interface 116. The client device 108 may receive an aggregateset of navigation statistics from the server 104, and then determinewhich selectable content the user is likely to select based upon theaggregate set of navigation statistics. As yet another example, theclient device 110 may display www.a.com within a browser interface 118.The client device 108 may determine which selectable content the user islikely to select based upon a cursor position within the browserinterface 116.

While the concepts described herein are generally described with respectto a web browser interface 114, 116, 118 executing on a client device106, 108, 110, aspects of the disclosure can also be applied to anycomputing node capable of managing navigation events over a network,including a server 104.

The client devices 106, 108, 110 may also comprise personal computers,personal digital assistants (“PDA”): tablet PCs, netbooks, laptops,mobile phones, etc. Indeed, client devices in accordance with thesystems and methods described herein may comprise any device operativeto process instructions and transmit data to and from humans and othercomputers including general purpose computers, network computers lackinglocal storage capability, etc.

The client devices 106, 108, 110 may be operable to predict navigationevents to assist in data access on the network 112. For example, theclient devices may predict a likely navigation event to facilitateprerendering of a web page in order to improve the user's browsingexperience. In some aspects, the server 104 provides navigation datawhich may be used by the client devices 106, 108, 110 to predict alikely navigation event. In some aspects, the client devices 106, 108,110 predict a likely navigation event using local data. In some aspects,a likely navigation event is indicated as a hypertext markup language(HTML) tag embedded within a web page.

The network 112, and the intervening nodes between the server 104 andthe client devices 106, 108, 110, may comprise various configurationsand use various protocols including the Internet, World Wide Web,intranets, virtual private networks, local Ethernet networks, privatenetworks using communication protocols proprietary to one or morecompanies, cellular and wireless networks (e.g., Wi-Fi), instantmessaging, hypertext transfer protocol (“HTTP”) and simple mail transferprotocol (“SMTP”), and various combinations of the foregoing. It shouldbe appreciated that a typical system may include a large number ofconnected computers.

Although certain advantages are obtained when information is transmittedor received as noted above, other aspects of the system and method arenot limited to any particular manner of transmission of information. Forexample, in some aspects, information may be sent via a medium such asan optical disk or portable drive. In other aspects, the information maybe transmitted in a non-electronic format and manually entered into thesystem.

Although some functions are indicated as taking place on the server 104and other functions are indicated as taking place on the client devices106, 108, 110, various aspects of the system and method may beimplemented by a single computer having a single processor. It should beappreciated that aspects of the system and method described with respectto the client may be implemented on the server, and vice-versa.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting an example of a computing device200, such as one of the client devices 106, 108, 110 described withrespect to FIG. 1. The computing device 200 may include a processor 204,a memory 202 and other components typically present in general purposecomputers. The memory 202 may store instructions and data that areaccessible by the processor 204. The processor 204 may execute theinstructions and access the data to control the operations of thecomputing device 200.

The memory 202 may be any type of tangible memory operative to storeinformation accessible by the processor 204, including acomputer-readable medium, or other medium that stores data that may beread with the aid of an electronic device, such as a hard-drive, memorycard, read-only memory (“ROM”), random access memory (“RAM”), digitalversatile disc (“DVD”) or other optical disks, as well as otherwrite-capable and read-only memories. The system and method may includedifferent combinations of the foregoing, whereby different portions ofthe instructions and data are stored on different types of media.

The instructions may be any set of instructions to be executed directly(such as machine code) or indirectly (such as scripts) by the processor204. For example, the instructions may be stored as computer code on acomputer-readable medium. In that regard, the terms “instructions” and“programs” may be used interchangeably herein. The instructions may bestored in object code format for direct processing by the processor 204,or in any other computer language including scripts or collections ofindependent source code modules that are interpreted on demand orcompiled in advance. Functions, methods and routines of the instructionsare explained in more detail below (see FIGS. 3-7).

Data may be retrieved, stored or modified by processor in accordancewith the instructions. For instance, although the architecture is notlimited by any particular data structure, the data may be stored incomputer registers, in a relational database as a table having aplurality of different fields and records, Extensible Markup Language(“XML”) documents or flat files. The data may also be formatted in anycomputer readable format such as, but not limited to, binary values orUnicode. By further way of example only, image data may be stored asbitmaps comprised of grids of pixels that are stored in accordance withformats that are compressed or uncompressed, lossless (e.g., BMP) orlossy (e.g., JPEG), and bitmap or vector-based (e.g., SVG), as well ascomputer instructions for drawing graphics. The data may comprise anyinformation sufficient to identify the relevant information, such asnumbers, descriptive text, proprietary codes, references to data storedin other areas of the same memory or different memories (including othernetwork locations) or information that is used by a function tocalculate the relevant data.

The processor 204 may be any suitable processor, such as variouscommercially available general purpose processors. Alternatively, theprocessor 204 may be a dedicated controller such as anapplication-specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”).

Although FIG. 2 functionally illustrates the processor and memory asbeing within a single block, it should be understood that the processor204 and memory 202 may actually comprise multiple processors andmemories that may or may not be stored within the same physical housing.Accordingly, references to a processor, computer or memory will beunderstood to include references to a collection of processors,computers or memories that may or may not operate in parallel.

The computing device 200 may be at one node of a network and beoperative to directly and indirectly communicates with other nodes ofthe network. For example, the computing device 200 may comprise a webserver that is operative to communicate with client devices via thenetwork such that the computing device 200 uses the network to transmitand display information to a user on a display of the client device.

The system can provide privacy protections for the client dataincluding, for example, anonymization of personally identifiableinformation, aggregation of data, filtering of sensitive information,encryption, hashing or filtering of sensitive information to removepersonal attributes, time limitations on storage of information, and/orlimitations on data use or sharing. Data can be anonymized andaggregated such that individual client data is not revealed. A user mayalso be provided with an opportunity to opt in/out to enable thecollection of sharing of data.

In order to facilitate the prerendering operations of the computingdevice 200, the memory 202 may further comprise a browser 206, anavigation prediction module 208, a prerender module 210, a clientnavigation history 212, and an aggregate navigation history 214.Although a number of discrete modules (e.g., 206, 208, 210, 212 and 214)are identified in connection with FIG. 2, the functionality of thesemodules may overlap and/or exist in a fewer or greater number of modulesthan what is shown, with such modules residing at one or more processingdevices, which may be geographically dispersed.

The browser 206 provides for the display of a web page 216 to a user ofthe client device by sending and receiving data across a computernetwork. The web page 216 may be received in response to a networkrequest, such as a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) GET request. Theweb page 216 may be provided in a markup language, such as HypertextMarkup Language (HTML). The web page 216 may also include variousscripts, data, forms, and the like, including interactive and executablecontent such as ADOBE FLASH content, JAVASCRIPT content, and the like.

The browser 206 may further comprise a prerendered web page 218. Theprerendered web page 218 represents a web page that was requested andaccessed by the prerender module 210 in response to a predictednavigation event provided by the navigation prediction module 208. Theprerendered web page 218 may be stored in a hidden rendering environmentsuch that the prerendered web page 218 is not visible to a user untilthe user selects a navigation link with which the prerendered web page218 is associated. The hidden rendering environment refers to anyrepresentation that does not have an immediately apparent interface forthe user. For example, the prerendered web page 218 may be stored withina browser “tab” that does not have an associated selection control in aweb browser tab interface. The hidden rendering environment may beaccessible via a menu or interface command, and in response to theselection of this interface command an interface for the prerenderedcontent is generated, such as by adding a selection control for theprerendered content to the browser tab interface. The hidden renderingenvironment may also be provided by a variety of other methods suitableto receive and render the page environment while avoiding distraction ofthe user with potentially irrelevant content. The prerendered web page208 may be stored in a completely executed and rendered format. Forexample, any executable code, scripting language, multimedia files,and/or interactive objects may be fully requested and loaded in theprerendering environment. In the event the user selects the navigationevent associated with the prerendered web page 218, the browser 206 mayswap the prerendered web page 218 with the web page 216, thus providingthe content associated with the navigation event without the need tosend another network request.

The memory 202 may further comprise a prerender module 210 to performfetching of a next web page as identified by the navigation predictionmodule 208. The prerender module 210 sends a network request for the webpage identified to be the likely next navigation destination that theuser will select. The web page received in response to this request isthen stored in the browser 206 as the prerendered web page 218. In someaspects, the web page request generated by the prerender module 210 isidentical to a standard web page request. In some aspects, the web pagerequest generated by the prerender module 210 comprises certain featuresto facilitate the prerender process as described further below (seeFIGS. 3-7).

In some aspects, the computing device 200 may determine a likelynavigation event using a client navigation history, such as the clientnavigation history 212. The client navigation history 212 comprises aset of navigation events associated with past activity of the browser206. The client navigation history 212 may track a set of visited URLs,also known as a “clickstream,” which tracks an order in which the usertypically visits URLs (e.g., when the user visits a news website, theytend to next select a URL corresponding to the top story of the day), aset of access times associated with the URLs, and the like. Theaggregate navigation history 214 may comprise similar data, but keyed tomultiple users rather than a single user. The client navigation history212 and aggregate navigation history 214 may represent data collectedusing one or more browser add-ons, scripts, or toolbars. In someaspects, the client navigation history 212 and/or aggregate navigationhistory 214 are maintained on a remote server, such as the server 104,and provided to the computing device 200. The computing device 200 maymaintain separate records to facilitate the predicting of a next likelynavigation event, or it may act in concert with remotely stored data. Insome aspects, only aggregate navigation history 214 pertaining to theparticular web page the user is currently viewing is provided to thecomputing device 200.

As described above, the aggregate navigation history data 214 can bemaintained in an anonymous fashion, with privacy protections for theindividual client data that comprises the aggregate navigation history,including, for example, anonymization of personally identifiableinformation, aggregation of data, filtering of sensitive information,encryption, hashing or filtering of sensitive information to removepersonal attributes, time limitations on storage of information, and/orlimitations on data use or sharing. The aggregate navigation history 214data can be anonymized and aggregated such that individual client datais not revealed.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram depicting an example method 300 forprerendering a web page in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.Aspects of the method 300 operate to minimize load times for networkcontent by requesting the network content prior to the user navigatingto said network content. The method 300 may be performed by a computingdevice, such as the computing device 200, to eliminate delays in theuser web browsing experience by prerendering web pages that areidentified as likely navigation targets by the user. For example, themethod 300 may be performed by elements of the browser 206, thenavigation prediction module 208, and the prerender module 210 actingtogether. While aspects of the method 300 are described with respect tothe computing device 200, the method 300 may also be performed by theserver 104, or any device with hardware and/or software designed toaccept instructions. Example aspects of the method 300 as describedrelate to prerendering of a single page associated with a singlenavigation event, but the method 300 is also broadly applicable toprerendering multiple pages associated with one or more navigationevents, such as prerendering multiple pages in sequence or in aplurality of parallel prerendering instances.

At stage 302, the computing device 200 determines a next navigationevent within a web browser. The next navigation event may be receivedfrom a navigation prediction element, such as the navigation predictionmodule 208, or the next navigation event may be embedded within the webpage displaying within the web browser. For example, a search engine mayembed a tag within a set of search results to indicate that a particularlink associated with the most relevant result should be prerendered bythe web browser. A method for embedding prerendering tags within a webpage is described below (see FIG. 4).

At stage 304, the computing device 200 requests the content associatedwith the navigation event identified at stage 302. The request maycomprise a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) GET request, a filetransfer protocol (FTP) request, or any other network data accessrequest as known in the art. A first set of web content may be providedin response to a HTTP GET request, which may then lead to additionalHTTP GET requests in accordance with the first set of web content. Forexample, a HTTP GET request may result in a base web page being sent tothe web browser, which may trigger other page loading operations, suchas additional GET requests. The base web page may have multiple embeddedimages, which are then fetched and rendered using HTTP GET requests foreach image. The prerendering process as described may request the fullweb page, including associated scripts, and then execute those scripts.In response to the request, the web content associated with thenavigation event is sent to the web browser. For example, the remoteserver 104 may send the content to the web browser. To return to thesearch engine example, upon receiving a web page with an embeddedprerender tag, the computing device 200 requests and renders the webpage associated with the URL associated with the top search result asidentified by the search engine.

At stage 306, the computing device 200 renders content associated withthe navigation event determined at stage 302. The content may berendered in an alternate instance of the web browser that is hidden fromthe user. For example, the content may be rendered by an alternateprocess or in a hidden web browser tab. In some aspects, the computingdevice 200 may render content associated with multiple navigationevents. For example, the navigation events may be associated with apriority value, with higher or lower values associated with more likelynavigation events. As such, the computing device 200 may render the top“n” most likely events, depending upon the capabilities of the computingdevice 200 (see FIG. 7).

In some aspects, the rendered content may include a redirectionoperation. An example of a redirection operation is when the act ofloading a first page, for instance, www.a.com, causes the browser toload a second page, such as www.b.com. Redirection may occur in responseto a HTML tag, a JAVASCRIPT navigation command, or the like. In the casea prerendered page requests a redirection operation, said redirectionoperation would also occur in the alternate instance.

In some aspects, a first redirection operation may lead to subsequentredirections. For example, www.a.com may lead to www.b.com, which leadsto www.c.com. Aspects of the system and method may account for thisfact, such as by storing a history of redirection operations andprerendering the last page in a series in response to a first page beingidentified to prerender. In some aspects, the method 300 mayshort-circuit redirection operations by not prerendering intermediatepages when the destination result page (i.e. the page at the end of theredirection operations) is known, and only prerendering the final pagein the series.

At stage 308, the computing device 200 may determine whether the userhas selected the link identified at stage 302 within a particular timeperiod. For example, the method 300 may wait for 10 seconds, 20 seconds,30 seconds, one minute, 5 minutes, or any other time frame. In someaspects, the time frame may be configurable within an options menuassociated with the web browser. The time frame may also be specified bythe server 104. For example, the server 104 may embed a timeout valuewithin a prerender tag, indicating the length of time the contentassociated with the tag should be held before being discarded. If theuser has selected the link within the time period, the method 300proceeds to stage 312. Otherwise, the method 300 proceeds to stage 310.

At stage 310, the computing device 200 discards the prerendered content.The prerendered content is allowed to expire in this manner in order tofree up system resources associated with the prerender operation andprevent the user from being presented with stale data. In some aspects,a different expiration period may be specified for different types ofdata. For example, data that is likely to rapidly change, such asbreaking news articles, stock quotes, syndication feeds, and the like,is more likely to grow stale quickly, and might be associated with ashorter expiration timer, such as 10 seconds, 20 seconds, or one minute.Data that is less likely to change, such as reference articles,archives, box scores, and the like, might be associated with a longerexpiration timer, such as an hour, 6 hours, 24 hours, a week, or thelike. In some aspects, the wait time is based on a page type. Forexample, if the user is viewing a lengthy news article, a longer waittime may be specified when prerendering a next page of the article toprovide the user time to read the current page of the article beforeselecting the next page. In some aspects, the wait time is determined bya time-to-live (TTL) parameter embedded within the page. In someaspects, the wait time is hard coded within the browser. The method 300then ends after the prerendered content is discarded, though in someaspects the method 300 may repeat indefinitely as the user browses webcontent.

At stage 312, the computing device 200 swaps the alternate instancecontaining the prerendered content into the current user instance, inresponse to the user selecting the navigation event determined at stage302. In this manner, the computing device 200 displays the contentassociated with the navigation event instantly, without a delay whilethe data is requested from and received from the host server. To returnto the search results example, if the user selects the most relevantresult, the associated page is already loaded in the alternate instanceand thus is available instantly as soon as the user clicks the link. Insome aspects, the user may select the navigation event prior to theprerendering operation completing. In such cases, the partially loadedpage would be swapped into the current user instance. The partiallyloaded page would then continue to load in the current user instance asnormal. The method 300 then ends after making the prerendered contentavailable to the user.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting an example method 400 for indicatinga navigation event to prerender. In some aspects, the server hosting thecontent, such as the server 104, can specify the navigation event forthe web browser to prerender. Allowing the server to specify theprerendered link or links may be optimal for a variety of reasons, suchas because the server has the best information on which navigation eventis most likely, or because the server wishes to manage bandwidthassociated with particular hosted links, such as for load balancingoperations. As such, the server 104 may embed a prerender tag or tagswithin a hosted page, instructing the prerender module 210 of thecomputing device 200 in which content to render.

At stage 402, the server 104 identifies one or more links within ahosted web page. For example, the server 104 may generate a list of websites in response to a query from the computing device 200. Each searchresult may be associated with a particular link on the page that is tobe provided in response to the query.

At stage 404, the server 104 selects one or more links to prerender,chosen from the links identified at stage 402. The links to prerendermay be chosen by a variety of methods for a variety of purposes, such asby examining a user navigation history, an aggregate navigation history,a most relevant link, and the like. In some aspects, the links arechosen by a search engine analyzing the links most frequently clicked inresponse to a particular query. For example, the search engine maycollect “click-through” data indicating which links are clicked on inresponse to a particular query, and select one or more links toprerender based upon the frequency with which the particular links areselected. To continue the search engine example, the server 104 mightidentify the top search result, or the top “n” search results as optimallinks to prerender. In some aspects, the server 104 may further identifya ranking of links to prerender, with the most optimal link to prerenderbeing ranked number 1, the next most optimal link being ranked number 2,and so on. The server 104 may also identify a likelihood that each linkwill be selected, rather than a rank. For example, the server 104 mayindicate that a particular link has a 50% likelihood, a 25% likelihood,or a 80% likelihood of being selected by a user. Prerender operationsperformed by the client may elect to prerender links associated with athreshold level of likelihood, for example, such as at least 50%likelihood, at least 80% likelihood, or any other threshold value.

At stage 406, the server 104 embeds one or more prerender tags with theone or more links identified at stage 404. For example, the server 104may include a hypertext markup language (HTML) tag for identifying theoptimal link or links to prerender. As described above, the prerendertag may also include a ranking value and a TTL value specifying a timeto keep the prerender. To continue the search engine example, the server104 may identify each search result with a prerender tag, along withranking the prerender order of the results by the relevance of thesearch result.

At stage 408, the page with the embedded prerender tags is sent to theclient that requested the page. The method 400 then ends after sendingthe page.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting an example method 500 for managingweb impression statistics during a prerender operation in accordancewith aspects of the disclosure. Web sites often track what content isviewed, which pages are accessed, in what order those pages areaccessed, and how much time is spent on each page. These capture andanalysis of such data is broadly referred to as “website analytics”.These statistics provide data that may be used by site operators for avariety of purposes. For example, one such use of this data is tocalculate rates for advertisements displayed along with the content.However, in some instances, the user may not select the navigation eventassociated with prerendered content, thus possible interfering withcollection of this data. For example, the traditional model of trackinguser impressions via the number of times a given page is sent to theuser may no longer provide accurate results, because the user may notview the content every time it is sent. As such, the server, such as theserver 104, may provide a method for accurate tracking of impressionsthat takes into account prerendered content. One such method isdescribed below. Although specific examples of the method may beprovided with respect to managing impression statistics of advertisementcontent, it should be appreciated that aspects of the method are broadlyapplicable to ensuring accurate website analytics for pages served inresponse to prerender requests.

At stage 502, the server 104 receives a prerender request from acomputing device, such as the computing device 200. In some aspects, theprerender request may be identified using a scripting applicationprogramming interface (API), such as by the computing device 200indicating the content request is for a prerender operation via aJAVASCRIPT API transmitted with the content request. The prerenderrequest may also be accompanied by a modified HTTP header, indicatingthat the request is a prerender request. In some aspects, the server 104is configured to receive an event notification from the computing device200 as provided by the API, such as by registering for the eventnotification using an application executing on the server 104. In someaspects, the server 104 may elect to not send content in response to aprerender request, such as in instances where the server is bandwidthconstrained, or otherwise does not wish to allow prerendering. Providingnotification of the prerender request in this manner also allows for theserver 104 to “opt-out” of processing the prerender request. Forexample, the server 104 may be bandwidth constrained and thus need tofocus on hosting non-prerendered content. In some aspects, the server104 may also opt-out by including a HTML metatag indicating as such, oran entry in a “robots.txt” file hosted on the server to preventprerendering of content by a search engine, such as indicated in a listof search results.

At stage 504, the server 104 may send a partial web page, with thecertain content redacted. For example, the server 104 may not provideimages associated with advertisement content in response to a prerenderrequest, as in many instances advertisement impressions are determinedbased upon the number of times the advertisement image is sent. Asimilar method may apply to advertisements provided in other manners,such as via scripting or executable content. As an example, the server104 might respond to a prerender request by providing a base web page.The base web page may result in the computing device 200 initiating oneor more additional HTTP GET requests for content identified by the baseweb page. The server 104 may opt not to send content in response to HTTPGET requests for ad images identified within the base web page.

In some aspects, the redacted version of the content may include aspecial HTTP error codes associated with redacted images, scripts, andthe like, indicating to the receiving computing device that certaincontent has been redacted. In this manner, the computing device 200 maybe informed that certain content has been redacted and will be suppliedlater, rather than that the content is unavailable. As such, thecomputing device 200 may opt to indicate redacted content with aparticular graphic or temporary display while the content loads uponaccess, or the redacted content may appear blank.

In some cases, the computing device 200 may not be aware of how toproperly display redacted content, in which case the computing device200 may abort the prerender operation. Furthermore, when the useraccesses the content, the computing device 200 may notify the server 104that the prerendered page has been viewed. In response, the server 104may send the redacted content to the computing device 200.

At stage 506, the server 104 receives confirmation that the prerender ofthe content was viewed by the user. As above, the server 104 may benotified of the viewing of the content via an API provided through theweb browser. For example, a script may communicate an event notificationto the server 104. If the server 104 is registered for such an eventnotification, it may take appropriate action, such as sending theredacted content to the computing device 200. By informing the server104 that the prerender content was viewed, the server 104 knows to sendany redacted content and update the impression statistics associatedwith any advertisements.

At stage 508, the server 104 sends the content that was redacted atstage 504. The content can now be sent because the server 104 hasensured that the user has accessed the content. For example, the server104 may send images associated with advertisements, scripting code, orthe like.

At stage 510, the server 104 updates the impression statisticsassociated with the content as sent at stage 508. In some aspects,stages 508 and 510 occur simultaneously as the act of hosting theimage/sending an advertisement automatically updates the page impressionstatistics. In this manner the server 104 maintains accurate reportingof website analytics data while also allowing the computing device 200to perform prerender operations.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram depicting an example method 600 for managing aprerender operation in accordance with aspects of the disclosure. Inorder to provide an optimal prerendering experience, the computingdevice 200 can account for different factors that may affect thebrowsing experience. For example, web pages commonly use small filesknown as cookies to provide various page services via the web browser.For example, a news site may employ a tracking cookie to allow a user toaccess one news article per day without registering on the page. Aprerender operation associated with that news site could then interferewith the user's browsing experience, as the user may prerender anarticle he does not intend to read, thus using up the one free articleper day on a page he has not viewed.

Some web pages have embedded audio or video content that begins to playas soon as the page loads. In some implementations, the prerender methodand system as described herein can allow such content to begin playingbefore the user navigates to the content, thus when the user beginsviewing the page, the content is already playing. Some web pages mayinclude additional content that might not be suitable for prerendering,such as pop-up pages, scripted programs, downloads, authenticationprompts, translation bars, and the like. As such, the prerender module210 may employ a method, such as the method 600, for managing thesespecial cases.

At stage 602, the computing device 200 requests and receives prerendercontent from a server, such as the server 104. As described above, therequest may be presented in or accompanied by an API call, indicating tothe server that the request is a prerender request. The page isprerendered based on a response received from the server. During theprerendering process, the computing device 200 monitors for severalparticular cases as described below. Although presented in a particularorder, these cases could be encountered in any order, such as byidentifying an embedded video prior to experiencing a cookie statechange, for example.

At stage 604, the computing device 200 determines whether the requestedprerender content includes a cookie state change or another specialcase. For example, if a user is accessing a banking web page, if anaccount page is prerendered and then the user logs out of their account,selecting the prerender link would incorrectly report data as if theuser was still logged in. As such, the prerender would be invalid assoon as the user has logged out. The computing device 200 thereforemonitors the state of any cookies associated with prerender content andmay take appropriate action. Appropriate action may include attemptingto properly propagate cookie state changes, ignoring cookie statechanges and continuing with the prerender operation, or giving up andaborting the prerender operation. The computing device 200 furtherdetermines if the prerender content includes a special case, such as apop-up page, a scripted application, a download, an authentication menu,or a translation bar. If a cookie state change has occurred or theprerender page includes a special case, the method proceeds to stage608. Otherwise the method 600 continues to stage 606.

At stage 608, the computing device 200 may abort the prerenderoperation. The computing device 200 may abort the prerender operationbecause the cookie state change or special case identified at stage 604makes the data associated with the prerendered page stale or otherwiseunviewable to the user. In some aspects, the computing device 200 mayignore the cookie state change. The method 600 then ends.

As an alternate method of managing cookie data, the computing device 200may track any cookie state change associated with the prerenderedcontent, and apply the state change when the prerendered content isaccessed by the user. In some aspects, the computing device 200 may alsomonitor for conflicts in cookie state change, and abort the prerenderingoperation in the event of a conflict. For example, a cookie state changemay occur after the prerender operation is complete, thus causing aconflict. In such a case, the prerendered version of the page could bediscarded to avoid presenting incorrect page data to the user.

At stage 606, if the prerender content does not contain a special caseand has not had a cookie state change, the computing device 200determines whether there is multimedia content on the page, such asaudio or video. For example, the page may include an embedded videoprogrammed with ADOBE FLASH, HTML5 media, or another type of embeddedmedia. In such a situation, it may be desirable to pause the multimediauntil the user actually navigates to the page, thus saving bandwidth andensuring the user may view the entire multimedia file. If the pagecontains embedded multimedia, the method 600 proceeds to stage 612.Otherwise the method 600 proceeds to stage 610.

At stage 610, the computing device 200 has determined that the contentcontains no multimedia content, cookie state changes, or special cases,and thus the computing device 200 prerenders the page. The prerenderingprocess may be performed by receiving the page from the server 104, andrendering the page in an application instance that is hidden from theuser. Rendering the page generally relates to loading all of the datareceived from the server 104, and executing any instructions containedtherein, as they would otherwise be executed when viewing the page in anon-hidden application instance.

At stage 612, the computing device 200 has determined that the contentcontains multimedia content. Thus the computing device 200 prerendersthe content of the page other than the multimedia content, and may pauseplayback of the multimedia content, or defer the instantiation of aplug-in associated with the content. For example, the computing device200 might pause an embedded audio or video file after prerendering therest of the page, or a FLASH video might not execute until the prerendercontent is shown to the user.

At stage 614, the computing device 200 determines whether the user hasaccessed the prerendered content. If the user accesses the prerenderedcontent, the content is displayed as described above, and the method 600proceeds to stage 616. If the user does not access the prerenderedcontent, for example, if a prerender timer expires as described abovewith respect to FIG. 3, then the method 600 ends.

At stage 616, the computing device 200 sends notification that the useraccessed the prerender to the server 104. As described above, thenotification may be sent using a scripted API from which the server isconfigured to receive event notifications. Providing notification inthis manner allows for the management of website impressions by theserver (see FIG. 5).

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram depicting an example method 700 for configuringa prerender operation in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.Different computing devices may possess different capabilities, such asnetwork bandwidth, system memory, and processor speed. As such, variousdevices may be able to support different prerender operations. A devicewith more capability may be able to support multiple prerenderoperations, or the prerendering of more complicated pages. As such, themethod 700 provides for configuration of these prerender operationsbased upon the capabilities of the system.

At stage 702, the computing device 200 conducts a measurement of systemcapabilities. For example, the computing device 200 may query theoperating system for the amount of free system memory, the computingdevice 200 may request the processor speed from the basic input-outputsystem (BIOS), or the computing device 200 may conduct a network speedtest to determine free bandwidth.

At stage 704, the computing device 200 determines a maximum number “n”prerenders based upon the capabilities as determined at stage 702. Insome aspects, the computing device 200 may determine a set of systemrequirements to support a single prerender instance. For example, asingle prerender instance may require 10 percent processor utilization,16 megabytes of system memory, at least 10 kilobytes/second of networkbandwidth, or the like. The system requirements may also includemultiple capabilities associated with different system components, suchas each of a minimum memory requirement, a processor utilization, and anetwork bandwidth. These system requirements may be determined bymeasuring the system utilization of a single prerender instanceexecuting on the client device 200.

For example, the computing device 200 may determine that each prerenderoperation is likely to require the system processor while prerendering.Such processor use may be “bursty” in that the entire processor isneeded when the page is first loading, with reduced processor needthereafter. In such cases, the computing device 200 may assign a lowerprocessor priority to the prerender instance to ensure that prerenderingof a page does not impact the user's browsing experience. In someaspects, the computing device 200 may monitor a system memory todetermine a number of prerender instances. The computing device 200 maydetermine an amount of memory used by a prerender instance and thencompare this amount to the total available memory capacity. In someaspects, the computing device 200 may reserve a particular amount ofsystem memory for prerendering, and generate prerender instances untilthe reserved memory is filled. In some aspects, a maximum networkbandwidth of the system is determined, and prerender instances aregenerated based on the percentage of available bandwidth. In someaspects, the computing device 200 may request a bandwidth measurementfrom a remote server to identify a local maximum bandwidth, and use themeasurement to determine a prerender setting.

At stage 706, the computing device 200 is configured to perform as manysimultaneous prerenders as the system capabilities can support, asdetermined at stage 704. In some instances, the number of prerenders maybe configurable by the user, such as in an options menu.

The stages of the illustrated methods are not intended to be limiting.The functionality of the methods can exist in a fewer or greater numberof stages than what is shown and, even with the depicted methods, theparticular order of events may be different from what is shown in thefigures.

The systems and methods described herein advantageously provide for animproved browsing experience. By prerendering the next navigation event,the system and methods minimize the amount of time users wait fornetwork content to load. The various management and configurationmethods provide for a robust experience that ensures accurate impressioncounts for advertisers hosting content.

As these and other variations and combinations of the features discussedabove can be utilized without departing from the disclosure as definedby the claims, the foregoing description of the embodiments should betaken by way of illustration rather than by way of limitation of thedisclosure as defined by the claims. It will also be understood that theprovision of examples of the disclosure (as well as clauses phrased as“such as,” “e.g.”, “including” and the like) should not be interpretedas limiting the disclosure to the specific examples; rather, theexamples are intended to illustrate only some of many possibleembodiments.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method forprerendering web content, the method comprising: determining, by acomputing device, a navigation event within a web browser based at leastin part on a prerender tag embedded within a web page, the prerender tagincluding a ranking value used to rank links to prerender and a timeparameter; requesting, by the computing device, content associated withthe navigation event; prerendering, by the computing device, the contentassociated with the navigation event in an alternate instance of the webbrowser that is hidden from a user of the web browser; determining, bythe computing device, whether the user has selected the navigation eventwithin a time period based on the time parameter associated with theprerender tag; displaying the alternate instance of the web browsercontaining the prerendered content in a current user instance of the webbrowser when the user has selected the navigation event within the timeperiod based on the time parameter associated with the prerender tag;and discarding, by the computing device, the prerendered contentassociated with the navigation event when the user has not selected thenavigation event within the time period based on the time parameterassociated with the prerender tag.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein therequesting content comprises performing a hypertext transfer protocol(HTTP) GET request or a file transfer protocol (FTP) request.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the discarding the prerendered contentcomprises determining, by the computing device, the time period based onthe time parameter associated with the prerender tag.
 4. The method ofclaim 3, wherein the time period is determined in part based on a pagetype.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the time period is determinedbased on a time-to-live value associated with the prerender tag.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the prerendering comprises prerendering asingle page associated with a single navigation event.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the prerendering comprises prerendering a plurality ofpages associated with one or more navigation events.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the prerendering comprises prerendering a plurality ofpages in sequence.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the prerenderingcomprises prerendering a plurality of pages in parallel prerenderinginstances.
 10. A computing device comprising: one or more processors;and a memory configured to store instructions and data that areaccessible to the one or more processors; wherein the one or moreprocessors are configured to: determine a navigation event within a webbrowser based at least in part on a prerender tag embedded within a webpage, the prerender tag including a ranking value used to rank links toprerender and a time parameter; request content associated with thenavigation event; prerender the content associated with the navigationevent in an alternate instance of the web browser that is hidden from auser of the web browser; determine whether the user has selected thenavigation event within a time period based on the time parameterassociated with the prerender tag; display the alternate instance of theweb browser containing the prerendered content in a current userinstance of the web browser when the user has selected the navigationevent within the time period based on the time parameter associated withthe prerender tag; and discard the prerendered content associated withthe navigation event when the user has not selected the navigation eventwithin the time period based on the time parameter associated with theprerender tag.
 11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the one ormore processors are configured to perform a hypertext transfer protocol(HTTP) GET request or a file transfer protocol (FTP) request.
 12. Thecomputing device of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors areconfigured to determine the time period based on the time parameterassociated with the prerender tag.
 13. The computing device of claim 12,wherein the time period is determined in part based on a page type. 14.The computing device of claim 12, wherein the time period is based on atime-to-live value associated with the prerender tag.
 15. The computingdevice of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors are furtherconfigured to: prerender a single page associated with a navigationevent; or prerender a plurality of pages associated with one or morenavigation event; or prerender a plurality of pages in sequence; orprerender a plurality of pages in parallel prerendering instances.
 16. Acomputer-readable non-transitory medium storing a set of instructions,which when executed by one or more processors causes the one or moreprocessors to perform a method comprising: determining, by a computingdevice, a navigation event within a web browser based at least in parton a prerender tag embedded within a web page, the prerender tagincluding a ranking value used to rank links to prerender and a timeparameter; requesting, by the computing device, content associated withthe navigation event; prerendering, by the computing device, the contentassociated with the navigation event in an alternate instance of the webbrowser that is hidden from a user of the web browser; determining, bythe computing device, whether the user has selected the navigation eventwithin a time period based on the time parameter associated with theprerender tag; displaying the alternate instance of the web browsercontaining the prerendered content in a current user instance of the webbrowser when the user has selected the navigation event within the timeperiod based on the time parameter associated with the prerender tag;and discarding, by the computing device, the prerendered contentassociated with the navigation event when the user has not selected thenavigation event within the time period based on the time parameterassociated with the prerender tag.
 17. The medium of claim 16, whereinthe discarding the prerendered content comprises determining, by thecomputing device, the time period based on the time parameter in theprerender tag.
 18. The medium of claim 17, wherein the time period isdetermined based in part on a page type.
 19. The medium of claim 17,wherein the time period is determined based on a time-to-live valueassociated with the prerender tag.
 20. The medium of claim 16, whereinthe prerendering comprises: prerendering a single page associated with asingle navigation event, or prerendering a plurality of pages associatedwith one or more navigation events, or prerendering a plurality of pagesin sequence, or prerendering a plurality of pages in parallelprerendering instances.